The invention also relates to apparatus for heating foodstuffs or other substances disposed in containers (hereinafter also referred to as cans of food) comprising a heatable boiler receiving a flowable heating medium, more particularly water.
The above reference to foodstffs or other substances means that the preferred application of the invention is to foodstuffs and the other substances may, for example, be blood plasma or solutions.
Where containers are referred to, such containers are cans of food in the preferred embodiment.
For food preparation purposes, it is known to open cans of food and empty the contents into, and heat them in, a saucepan, or else place the closed can in a boiler which may or may not be of saucepan shape, such boiler being filled with water, the contents of the cans being heated by heating the water. In either case, the reheating operation is a relatively long one. This is because the can of food remains stationary in the heating medium, i.e., boiling water, while there are different temperatures over the height of the can and the heat has to penetrate inwards through the stationary contents of the can, so that there is also varying heating across the diameter of the contents of the can. This is a disadvantage in the case of a can of food which has already been subject to one heating operation, because the reheating operation frequently influences the taste of the food, depending upon the consistency and nature thereof. If a can of food is heated in water, different parts of the food are heated to different intensities and for different lengths of time.
Although the attempt has been made to obviate these disadvantages by the other method indicated above, i.e., emptying the contents into a vessel in the form of a saucepan, in which case the contents thereof can be agitated, a disadvantage in addition to the operation required is that the contents of the vessel subsequently have to be emptied into separate dishes or containers, apart from the fact that heating in a saucepan results in flavour losses due to escaping vapour.